Raed or Rayed Arafat is a Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

n-born Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n intensive care

Intensive care medicine

Intensive-care medicine or critical-care medicine is a branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and management of life threatening conditions requiring sophisticated organ support and invasive monitoring.- Overview :...

 physician of Palestinian origin. An anesthesiologist

Anesthesiologist

An anesthesiologist or anaesthetist is a physician trained in anesthesia and peri-operative medicine....

, he is the founder and of Mobile Emergency Service for Resuscitation and Extrication

SMURD

SMURD is an emergency rescue service based in Romania. SMURD is the Romanian acronym for "Serviciul Mobil de Urgenţǎ, Reanimare şi Descarcerare", that means Mobile Emergency Service for Resuscitation and Extrication....

 (SMURD), as well as its Mureş County

Mures County

Mureș is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, with the administrative centre in Târgu Mureș.-Geography:The county has a total area of 6,714 km²....

 coordinator.

Biography

Born in Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

 to a Palestinian

Palestinian people

The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...

 couple from Nablus

Nablus

Nablus is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.Founded by the...

, he worked as a volunteer in emergency medicine

Emergency medicine

Emergency medicine is a medical specialty in which physicians care for patients with acute illnesses or injuries which require immediate medical attention. While not usually providing long-term or continuing care, emergency medicine physicians diagnose a variety of illnesses and undertake acute...

 from the age of 14. He left for Communist Romania

Communist Romania

Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...

 in 1981, and initially settled in Piteşti

Pitesti

Pitești is a city in Romania, located on the Argeș River. The capital and largest city of Argeș County, it is an important commercial and industrial center, as well as the home of two universities. Pitești is situated on the A1 freeway connecting it directly to the national capital Bucharest,...

, where he took Romanian language

Romanian language

Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

 classes, and later enrolled at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy

Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy

Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy is the continuation of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, which was founded in 1919 at Cluj, as a part of the University of Cluj. The faculty has over 9,000 national and international students, as well as over 850 teachers and...

 in Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

. Arafat later moved to the Târgu Mureş University of Medicine

University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Târgu Mureş

The University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Târgu Mureș or UMF Targu-Mureș is a public university in Târgu Mureș, Romania, founded in 1948 as Institutul Medico-Farmaceutic...

, where he underwent specialization in anesthesiology. He was later a graduate of numerous specialist courses abroad, training with the Paris Fire Brigade

Paris Fire Brigade

The Paris Fire Brigade , is a French Army unit which serves as the fire service for Paris and certain sites of national strategic importance....

, the United States National Guard

United States National Guard

The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...

, and the Norwegian Air Ambulance

Norwegian Air Ambulance

The Norwegian Air Ambulance is the air ambulance service in Norway organised through the government owned limited company Luftambulansetjenesten . The service provides helicopter emergency medical service and fixed wing air ambulance operations.Dedicated planes are provided at six airports, and...

.

Following the 1989 Revolution

Romanian Revolution of 1989

The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...

, Arafat contemplated leaving for France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, but his application was rejected, so he concentrated instead on creating an emergency service in Târgu Mureş (which he originally financed with personal funds).

In 1991, he created SMURD, which began collaborating with the Romanian firefighting service and the Fire service

Fire service in the United Kingdom

The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales...

 of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, working for it as a volunteer until 1998, when he gained Romanian citizenship.

In late 2005, his project to have SMURD function as an additional rescue service at a county

Counties of Romania

The 41 judeţe and the municipality of Bucharest comprise the official administrative divisions of Romania. They also represent the European Union' s NUTS-3 geocode statistical subdivision scheme of Romania.-Overview:...

 level was passed into law, but raised opposition from the physician and Social Democratic

Social Democratic Party (Romania)

The Social Democratic Party is the major social-democratic political party in Romania. It was formed in 1992, after the post-communist National Salvation Front broke apart. It adopted its present name after a merger with a minor social-democratic party in 2001. Since its formation, it has always...

 politician Sorin Oprescu

Sorin Oprescu

Sorin Mircea Oprescu is a Romanian independent politician and medical doctor who is currently serving as Mayor of Bucharest.-Political activity:...

, who had drafted an alternative proposal. A reference to Arafat as "the Ayatollah

Ayatollah

Ayatollah is a high ranking title given to Usuli Twelver Shī‘ah clerics. Those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in Islamic seminaries. The next lower clerical rank is Hojatoleslam wal-muslemin...

 of Romanian emergency medicine" and the stress he placed on the latter's country of origin brought Oprescu to the attention of the National Anti-Discrimination Office.

A first aid

First aid

First aid is the provision of initial care for an illness or injury. It is usually performed by non-expert, but trained personnel to a sick or injured person until definitive medical treatment can be accessed. Certain self-limiting illnesses or minor injuries may not require further medical care...

 instructor, he coordinated international lectures on the matter in several countries (including Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

, the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, and the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

). In 2003, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Merit of Romania (a Grand Officer since 2005).

As of August, 2009, he holds the position of Under-Secretary of State for Health.